Executive Summary

Humboldt County is the oldest county in Nevada that has built its economy around agriculture, mining, and tourism. Agriculture leads the state with over 100,000 acres under cultivation, while sustainable tourism is supported through gaming, abundant outdoor recreation opportunities, and excellent hunting and fishing. Mining has been a cornerstone since the beginning with rich mineral deposits of gold, dolomite, opal, purified wood and silver. Today, Humboldt County is working towards expanding its overall mineral mining portfolio to include lithium. Large deposits of lithium have been identified in the McDermitt Caldera area that presents a unique opportunity to develop a significant supply to satisfy increasing market demands.

The purpose of this report is to estimate the economic, fiscal and community impacts from the construction and operation of a new lithium mine, lithium processing plant, and sulfuric acid manufacturing plant in Humboldt County, Nevada. This study contributes to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Socioeconomic Impact Assessment, for Lithium Nevada Corp. permit application

B. Borden, T. Harris, J. Lednicky, L. Thomas 2018, Social, Economic and Fiscal Impact Assessment for New Lithium Operations in Humboldt County, Nevada, Center for Economic Development, University of Nevada, Reno

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Buddy Borden

Thomas Harris

Joseph Lednicky

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Associated Programs

Thomas Harris speaking to group of Nevada Economic Assessment Project Stakeholders at an update meeting

Nevada Economic Assessment Project (NEAP)

The Nevada Economic Assessment Project focuses on providing Nevada’s counties, state and federal agencies, and their partners with quantitative and qualitative baseline data and analyses to better understand the counties’ demographic, social, economic, fiscal and environmental characteristics, trends and impacts. The data can be used for land use and project planning, grant writing and overall policy assessment.

Social, Economic and Fiscal Impact Assessment for New Lithium Operations in Humboldt County, Nevada

Executive Summary

Published by: B. Borden, T. Harris, J. Lednicky, L. Thomas, 2018, Social, Economic and Fiscal Impact Assessment for New Lithium Operations in Humboldt County, Nevada, Center for Economic Development, University of Nevada, Reno